- Generative AI is unlike any technology that has come before. It’s swiftly disrupting business and society, forcing leaders to rethink their assumptions, plans, and strategies in real time.
- To help CEOs stay on top of the fast-shifting changes, the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV) is releasing a series of targeted, research-backed guides to generative AI on topics from data security to tech investment strategy to customer experience.
- This is part 15: Business process automation.
Generative AI is unlike any technology that has come before. It’s swiftly disrupting business and society, forcing leaders to rethink their assumptions, plans, and strategies in real time.
To help CEOs stay on top of the fast-shifting changes, the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV) is releasing a series of targeted, research-backed guides to generative AI on topics from data security to tech investment strategy to customer experience.
This is part 15: Business process automation.
Generative AI is unlike any technology that has come before. It’s swiftly disrupting business and society, forcing leaders to rethink their assumptions, plans, and strategies in real time.
To help CEOs stay on top of the fast-shifting changes, the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV) is releasing a series of targeted, research-backed guides to generative AI on topics from data security to tech investment strategy to customer experience.
This is part 15: Business process automation.
Inspire a new generation of workflow gurus.
Everyone is hungry for the productivity gains promised by generative AI. But innovation takes a human touch. To achieve the exponential growth that technology could unlock, operations leaders must become workflow gurus—and use generative AI to reimagine how jobs are done.
These visionaries must transform the back office into an epicenter of strategic planning. Instead of focusing on transactional tasks, they must take charge of end-to-end operations, finding creative ways to accelerate speed to value. It’s not about automating the tasks that already exist—it’s about weeding out bad processes and introducing workflows that are entirely new.
By enhancing human ingenuity with generative AI, leaders can free people to focus on the high-value tasks that require empathy and creativity, not just time and energy. But first people have to see the value it brings. Because “productivity gains” sound a lot like “job cuts” to skeptical employees, CEOs need to share a clear vision for what generative AI adoption will look like—and how it can support operations teams.
As the line between automation and augmentation blurs, employees need to see how they can elevate their roles. They need to understand how AI assistants can help them orchestrate a symphony of processes that are more responsive to changing business needs. As generative AI continues to rapidly evolve, operation teams can become a growth engine for the business—if people are inspired to play their crucial role.
The IBM Institute for Business Value has identified three things every leader needs to know:
1. The back office will soon be a generative AI hub.
2. Generative AI converts technology into teammates.
3. Upskill and outsource to move forward faster.
And three things every leader needs to do right now:
1. Give operations teams runway to experiment—but ask for proof points when they land.
2. Treat AI assistants like racecars and employees like professional drivers.
3. Trade control for capability.
Additional content
Meet the authors
Anthony Marshall, Senior Research Director, Thought Leadership, IBM Institute for Business ValueCindy Anderson, Global Executive for Engagement and Eminence, IBM Institute for Business Value
Christian Bieck, Europe Leader & Global Research Leader, Insurance, IBM Institute for Business Value
Karen Butner, Global Research Leader, AI and Automation and Supply Chain Operations, IBM Institute for Business Value
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Originally published 27 May 2024
This chapter is available in the latest edition of the IBM Institute for Business Value's book, The CEO's Guide to Generative AI.
1. Experimentation
+ Generative AI
What you need to know
The back office will soon be a generative AI hub.
Unprecedented complexity—from real-time reporting to fragile global supply chains to fintech disruption—is poised to change operations forever. At first glance, generative AI may seem to amplify this complexity. But, once teams accept it, this technology can help them cut through the noise.
Executives are optimistic about what generative AI can do—and they expect to apply it broadly across operations. By 2025, they plan to augment business processes 55% more than they do today, with growth distributed almost equally across HR and the finance processes of source to pay, lead to cash, and record to analyze. As a result of generative AI, they expect to see a whopping 41% increase in productivity—a jump that should have a profound impact on the bottom line.
But CEOs should expect progress, not perfection. Getting the most value from generative AI will require experimentation with clear guardrails, a high tolerance for failure, and a willingness to overcome challenges as they arise. For instance, roughly four in 10 executives say data privacy concerns and employee resistance to adoption are significant hurdles their teams must face.
To evolve the back office into the generative AI hub it could be, CEOs and operations leaders will need to foster a culture of innovation, governance, and continuous learning. They’ll also need to provide radical reskilling options to deter employees from digging in their heels. As they do, they'll uncover new opportunities to respond strategically to disruption—no matter how chaotic the future might be.
What you need to do
Give operations teams runway to experiment—but ask for proof points when they land.
Reward teams for getting creative with process automation, as long as they provide clear documentation about what worked. Ask them to highlight where they delivered measurable business value and where efforts fell short.
- Share learnings in real time to accelerate speed-to-value. Ask employees to relay their experiences in collaborative communication channels and documentation portals.
- Reward your team’s innovative spirit—not just big wins—to discover new ways to boost ROI. Incentivize big-picture process innovation, small-scale efficiency gains, and fast failure that leads to valuable lessons learned.
- Increase productivity through predictive analytics. Use generative AI to detect patterns and trends that highlight opportunities to streamline workflows. Adopt flexible operating models to respond quickly to the insights it uncovers.
2. Augmented work
+ Generative AI
What you need to know
Generative AI converts technology into teammates.
Can a tool become a trusted teammate? Most executives say yes—even if their employees are still unsure.
87% expect generative AI-powered assistants will soon be able to query, validate, and aggregate information reliably for employees, giving them more time to focus on strategic work. And they expect employees to welcome their new co-workers with open arms. Nearly two-thirds (64%) say their people will need to work in tandem with digital teammates to deliver seamless processes by 2025.
But the 2024 CEO Study revealed that top leaders are concerned about the human element. In fact, In fact, 64% say succeeding with AI will depend more on people’s adoption than the technology itself. And 61% say they’re pushing their organization to adopt generative AI faster than some people are comfortable with.
While the scale of change on the horizon is intimidating, the potential upside for employees that embrace generative AI is substantial. For instance, 60% of executives say AI assistants will execute most traditional processes by 2025—and nearly two-thirds (64%) predict that employees will interact with AI assistants as their primary point of intelligence for transactional tasks in the same timeframe. This evolution could liberate people from mundane tasks and give them the time they need to do more valuable—and more enjoyable—creative work.
AI assistants could soon become indispensable coworkers across functions, but only if organizations put the right guardrails in place. Models must be able to explain their answers for employees to trust them—and be able to identify hallucinations and biased responses as they appear.
With so much to consider, integrating generative AI into real-world workflows is a big task. And some areas are farther along in the transformation than others. For example, 63% of executives say CFO self-service assistants will be crucial for automating record to analyze processes and 61% say the same for employee self-service assistants in HR. As digital teammates join the workforce en masse, operations leaders will need to help people see how they can use generative AI to their advantage. Employees who step up to the challenge could open new avenues for business growth—and entirely new career paths they can explore.
What you need to do
Treat AI assistants like racecars–and employees like professional drivers.
Provide a roadmap that shows employees where and when they should automate or augment processes with AI assistants. Give them an owner’s manual that explains how to use these powerful machines effectively and responsibly.
- Reduce drag with streamlined design. Identify the processes that create the greatest frustration for operations teams and find ways to automate them.
- Reinforce guardrails. Train people to use generative AI responsibly so that they aren’t afraid to push the pedal to the metal.
- Teach generative AI to take the wheel when needed. Implement a self-learning training program for generative AI to improve its performance and accuracy in tasks such as compliance risk assessment, fraud detection, and profitability analysis.
3. Skills and capabilities
+ Generative AI
What you need to know
Upskill and outsource to move forward faster
Business leaders know that, when it comes to adopting generative AI, their talent is lacking. While they could fill gaps with training and hiring, that process takes years—and they don’t have that much time.
As the race to generative AI pushes organizations to deliver ROI in months—or maybe weeks—executives are looking to turbocharge their efforts with external expertise. Across nearly every process in HR, as well as source to pay, lead to cash, and record to analyze in finance, most executives plan to work with business process outsourcing (BPO) providers to accelerate their digital transformation with AI. The most likely processes to be outsourced include training in HR, sourcing in source to pay, sales support services in order to cash, and general accounting transactions and processing in record to analyze.
However, outsourcing will only get an organization so far. To succeed in the long run, companies must also upskill their in-house talent. As a result, 84% of executives say they’re very likely to invest in new skills and roles for generative AI in HR by 2025, with at least two-thirds saying the same for lead to cash (73%), source to pay (71%), and record to analyze (66%). This investment will be significant, with executives expecting to allocate 19% more of their skill budgets to generative AI-specific skills in 2025 than they did in 2023.
CEOs will need to strike the right balance between building internal capabilities that strengthen their competitive advantage and partnering to gain the skills and expertise that will support their growth. The future will belong to organizations that develop internal generative AI expertise as well as the ecosystem partnerships that power transformation.
What you need to do
Trade control for capability.
Tap partners with generative AI expertise to automate processes that aren’t core to your competitive advantage. Develop new internal roles, such as process orchestrators, digital librarians, and experience designers, to improve processes that must be managed in-house.
- Outsource to scale expertise. Partner with BPO providers to augment internal capabilities, expand possibilities for automation and workflow optimization, and quickly deploy the most advanced AI and automation technologies at pace.
- Create career paths that don’t exist today. Explore what new roles your organization should add. Employ process orchestrators to manage AI assistants across end-to-end processes. Tap digital librarians to manage prompt libraries, generative AI models, and governance and ethical guidelines.
- Optimize processes with experience designers. Define a compelling value proposition for process automation and design experiences that deliver the intended benefits and exceed user expectations.
The statistics informing the insights on this page are sourced from multiple proprietary IBM Institute for Business Value data sources. This includes a survey of 400 US-based executives fielded in October 2023 regarding their perspectives on the impact of artificial intelligence on various business processes, a survey of 300 US-based executives fielded in May 2023 regarding their perspectives on generative AI and talent and skills, and a survey of 2,000 global executives between April and June 2023 about intelligent automation. Insights published in the IBM IBV 2024 CEO Study are also referenced.
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Additional content
Meet the authors
Anthony Marshall, Senior Research Director, Thought Leadership, IBM Institute for Business ValueCindy Anderson, Global Executive for Engagement and Eminence, IBM Institute for Business Value
Christian Bieck, Europe Leader & Global Research Leader, Insurance, IBM Institute for Business Value
Karen Butner, Global Research Leader, AI and Automation and Supply Chain Operations, IBM Institute for Business Value
Download report translations
Originally published 27 May 2024
This chapter is available in the latest edition of the IBM Institute for Business Value's book, The CEO's Guide to Generative AI.
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